Fix delayed subtitles easily with SubtitlesSynch

If your movie subtitles are not synchronized well, there is an easy way to fix them. Usually a different version of the subtitles that would match the movie can be found, but you don’t need to search for that, since it is so easy to fix the subtitles you already have.

SubtitlesSynch is a free and portable utility, simple, light and efficient. Writing this review I have just synchronized the subtitles of an Elizabeth Taylor movie by 2.5 seconds. All I needed to do, was to enter in the timing boxes the number “2” for seconds and the number “500” for milliseconds. Then I checked the “Reduce time” option, since the text appeared after the actors had spoken, I loaded the subtitles file using the “Input” option, and finally I pressed the “Synchronize” button. In a moment the program had saved the original file with a new name and the synchronized file was ready to be used. It worked just fine! Note that SubtitlesSynch is also able to synchronize only a part of your subtitles, just enter the times that define only the part that you want to sync.

But how do you know exactly how many seconds you want to add or remove to sync your subtitles? Of course you can use a timer, or experiment, but there is also a simpler way. If you see your movies in VLC, use the relevant VLC keys that remove or add time to a movie’s subtitles, and see how much delay VLC adds or removes (it appears on screen each time you press the relevant keys) until the subtitles are perfectly synchronized. Then use this time in SubtitlesSynch to edit your file and make the change permanent. (Note that each second is 1000 milliseconds). Enjoy!